


Flightless bird

by siren_of_the_ocean



Series: Tim Drake AU's [20]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics), Superboy (Comics)
Genre: Discussion of Death, Gen, Good Friend Kon-El | Conner Kent, Hurt Tim Drake, Hurt/Comfort, Kon saves the day, Kon-El | Conner Kent is Superboy, Near Death Experiences, Parachute injuries, Tim Drake Angst, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake is Red Robin, discussion of injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27366808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siren_of_the_ocean/pseuds/siren_of_the_ocean
Summary: The parachute won’t open.Tim makes a point of it to always check the parachutes on the planes before they take off.But. The parachute won’t open.OR, Kon saves the day, including Tim
Relationships: Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent
Series: Tim Drake AU's [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1853161
Comments: 15
Kudos: 246





	Flightless bird

**Author's Note:**

> TW. There is discussion of death by falling and the injuries obtained. IE. By parachuting.
> 
> I am not a parachuter and thus not an expert. But I have lost a family friend this way.

The parachute won’t open. 

Tim makes a point of it to always check the parachutes on the planes before they take off. 

But. The parachute won’t open. 

He’s falling at rapid speed toward the ground with a parachute that won’t deploy. The thought shakes him out of his reverie and forces him to stop and think. 

The first chute won’t open. Alright. Cut your losses and deploy the emergency chute. It’s built for situations like this, after all. 

And the emergency chute does open. But somehow the first chute opens along with it. It’s the worst possible outcome. 

Both chutes open, writhing and tangling and turning around him, leaving both chutes useless. 

He’s still falling. 

Batman had once forced Tim to train on parachuting. All the things that can possibly go wrong. How to avoid them. How to react if they do happen. 

Think, Tim.   
Cut away the first parachute, which should allow the emergency parachute to flare and catch him.   
The chances of the first parachute still being entangled with the emergency are large. And if that happens, Tim is done for.   
He still has to take the chance. 

Tim takes a knife to the lines of the first parachute, cutting it free. And luckily, the force of the wind buffets it away from the emergency parachute, allowing it to flare, opening as it should and slowing Tim’s decent. 

It’s a great show of Tim’s luck that something cuts through the lines of his emergency parachute a second later. 

Sabotage. Well. That is both good and bad. Good since Tim hadn’t missed anything in his routine checks. Bad since he’s now falling to his death once again. It reminds him of the time Damian cut his line. But much, much higher. Much more deadly. 

Now, Tim has no more options. Both of his parachutes have been deployed. The one fluttering down toward the earth on its own and the other only attached to Tim at one shoulder, not allowing for any drag. Even if Tim spreads out his cape, he won’t have the resistance to stop his plummet. It would most likely just slow it down a smidge. 

Tim spreads his cape anyway, still thinking. 

Whoever wants him dead this time wants it to hurt. They could have killed him in the drop. It isn’t like he can fight or dodge. But no, instead they just cut his line and they’re probably watching him fall to his death right now. 

Thinking, Tim can only do one thing. And even that has no chance of saving him. 

Tim can now see the streets and the people below him much too clearly for his comfort, people and places coming into view. 

He has no breath but he tries anyway, tries to scream or yell or call for help. All Tim can do is manage a vaguely apologetic “Kon”.   
Tim knows that Kon won’t make it in time. Knows that he is falling at terminal velocity straight onto unforgiving earth. Kon is fast but not even Kon is that fast. He won’t make it in time to stop Tim from hitting the ground.   
And Tim knows that he shouldn’t call Kon. Knows what Kon will see when he arrives. 

Parachuters that bounce rarely die instantly. In fact, their deaths are often drawn out and painful. Tim knows this to be true. Knows that he will become another example in a second. 

He shouldn’t have called Kon. Kon shouldn’t have to see his best friend die. 

But. Tim doesn’t want to die alone and in pain.   
Its selfish of him. He knows that but Tim doesn’t want to die in some place he doesn’t know, surrounded by people he doesn’t trust. If there is anyone at all. 

Tim doesn’t want to die alone. 

It doesn’t make it right. Calling for Kon. It’ll hurt him in a way that not even a Kryptonian is immune to. Maybe Tim should have just stayed quiet.   
Died with a whimper. 

Tim can see the ground now. With startling clarity. Can see some kids on a playground staring at him as he falls. He doesn’t want them to have to see him hit the ground.   
He angles his cape to change his direction as much as he can, wincing but working through the strain on his arms.   
He manages to angle himself to an area with no people, an old abandoned shipping yard by the looks of it. 

Seeing the ground once again approaching quickly, Tim gives up. He accepts his fate. There is really nothing he can do to save himself. He’s done everything he could. 

One part of him just hopes that Kon ignores his call. The other, selfish, part of him hopes that Kon will show up not long after Tim hits the ground. 

He turns in mid-air, watching the buildings around him float upwards in his vision until he’s looking up at the skyscrapers rather than down. He’s already below the 100m mark. And falling fast.   
He doesn’t even see the boy in leather coming until a shoulder slams into his side. 

Kon hits him fast and hard, breaking at least 4 of Tim’s ribs with the impact to his side and only just managing to stop Tim’s neck from breaking with his TTK. Human bodies aren’t supposed to change momentum and direction that quickly. 

Tim almost doesn’t register the pain, adrenaline and shock taking hold in his brain as he tries to compute. Because he isn’t dead. Kon had managed to save him. 

Almost broke his neck in the process but.   
But Kon manages, protects Tim’s body with a layer of TTK and starts slowing down slightly as they reach his destination.   
Tim isn’t even sure where they are. Can barely process the feeling of a leather jacket against his cheek and the arms wrapped around his middle. 

What he can process, is the fact that Kon is shaking. 

“Kryptonians don’t get cold” Tim mutters in a daze, not realizing that they’d stopped until his back is being laid down on something soft and forgiving. So unlike the feeling of bones breaking against concrete that he’d imagined.   
Kon lets out a watery, borderline hysterical laugh at that, staring at Tim like he’s going to vanish at any moment now. “No. We don’t” is all he manages before he collapses.   
He lands with his hands clinging to Tim’s shoulders, torso leaning on Tim’s hips and thighs, drawing him closer and closer. As close as Kon can manage. 

“Kon?” Tim asks then, filtering out the haze of shock and pain to look at his best friend. “You almost died” Kon grinds out, choking on the words between sobs and shakes. Tim doesn’t hesitate then to wrap his arms around Kon’s shoulders, trying to keep the movement of his ribs to a minimum.   
It hurts. His ribs. His shoulders. His head. But nothing hurts as much as the sight in front of Tim.   
Kon, shaking and sobbing, clinging to Tim with strength but obviously keeping his super strength in check. 

“Kon. Come on. Get up here” Tim says softly, taking Kon’s shoulders in his hands and tugging until Kon gets the picture and stands. He then sits down next to Tim before flopping over him, clinging to him again. And Tim can’t blame him for it.

A second or 2 ago, he’d been sure that Kon would hind his broken, bloody corpse on the ground. Or even worse, find his broken bloody body and have to watch him die. He can’t imagine how Kon must feel to have that image in his head.   
Except. He can. He can still see Kon’s broken body after Superboy Prime. It still gives Tim nightmares. 

“Tim. Tim. You’re alright” Kon says, sounding a second away from breaking down again and Tim can see the slow transition from shock to relief to anger.   
“You asshole! Why didn’t you call me earlier?! Why- Why did you call me when you were already halfway down?!” Kon yells, Tim knows he doesn’t mean it though. Knows that Kon is relieved and shocked and just a teensy bit angry. But the anger takes over. Tim knows it’s just because the anger is easier to process at the moment.   
“You! You almost-“Kon chokes then, on tears and horror, his throat clinking closed with the terror of his memory. 

“Kon. Kon, I’m alright. I’m…alright. I promise” Tim murmurs, drawing Kon close and wrapping himself as fully around him as he can manage without risking a punctured lung. They stay wrapped like that until both of their heartbeats slow, the pain from Tim’s ribs starting to filter in as the adrenaline fades.   
Kon must hear something distressing because he sits Tim up gingerly, as if afraid. “Stay here. I’m…fetching Ma. And the first aid kit” Kon says quickly before he’s gone.   
Tim doesn’t get the time to ask Kon to stay. 

It doesn’t take long for Tim to start spiralling.   
The silence presses down on him, clogging his throat. The lack of people freezing his breath in his lungs. Because, Tim doesn’t want to die alone. 

Kon finds him mid spiral, Martha Kent at his side with bandages and wraps and an assortment of other first aid implements. Neither of them hesitate to start speaking, drawing Tim out of his spiral and out of his, apparently, curled up position.   
Straightening out aggravates his ribs even more, drawing a small, breathy gasp from Tim’s lungs as the last of the adrenaline fades.   
Kon holding his hand and keeping his shoulder steady helps.   
It makes Tim feel real. Makes him feel better as he drifts off, finally giving in to the shock and pain as Kon yells his name. Yells for him to “Wake Up, Dammit!”  
But Tim’s already gone. 

Xxxxxxx

Kon had expected a slow night. Smallville hasn’t had much action since the whole Broken Silo incident. Lori has still been ignoring him. Simon is still going on about his parasite frogs and how some of them had gone missing. Sajan still training his powers and settling in, to the time period. 

Kon hasn’t even seen the phantom stranger since Eben Took and them were defeated. 

Still, it’s a slow night. Quiet. 

It just means that he can hear it more clearly.   
“Kon”  
It’s Tim’s voice but breathy, almost apologetic in tone.   
It isn’t a scream, which would usually mean good things. If it weren’t for the loud howling of wind around Tim and the flutter of fabric. 

Tim is falling. 

Kon is off like a shot before he can think, tracking Tim’s heartbeat and breathing as he flies faster than he’d ever gone before.   
He has to be fast. He has to make it. Doesn’t want to think of what happens if he doesn’t.   
The images flood his mind anyway, Tim laying on the ground, limbs splayed oddly and obviously broken, his lungs failing to draw in breath. 

Kon won’t let it happen. 

Pushing himself further, Kon weaves between buildings as he spots Tim, dressed as Red Robin. 

He sees the resignation on his expression, only one line holding the parachute connected to him.   
Kon can’t think then, just races towards Tim and grabs him as soon as he can. He can’t cushion the blow of his shoulder into Tim’s side but as soon as he makes contact, Kon throws a layer of TTK around Tim, protecting him as much as he can. 

He doesn’t think further. The mantra of “Oh my god. Oh my god. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod” overwhelming every single logical thought Kon has until he’s in his bedroom at the farm with Tim’s arms around his shoulders. 

Tim mutters something about kryptonian s not getting cold and that’s when Kon notices that he’s shaking. With shock and fear and adrenaline. Kon can’t help the slightly desperate laugh as he replies “No we don’t”. 

The banter just reminds him of what he could have lost. If he had just been a second later…

“Kon?” Tim asks as Kon starts to sob again “You almost died” Kon says, finally giving voice to the fact and wishing he hadn’t. Voicing it made it real, somehow. Made Kon shake with even worse sobs of the idea of his best friend dead because he was too late. 

Clinging to Tim’s shoulders, Kon makes sure to keep his strength in check. Makes sure that he doesn’t crush Tim’s bones in his desperation. He doesn’t think that he could handle that. Not after everything else today. 

“Kon. Come on. Get up here” Tim says, tugging Kon upward onto the bed. And Kon, once he stands, realises that his legs won’t hold him, collapsing onto Tim with his not-quite-inconsiderable-weight. Tim lets out a small wheeze that he doesn’t seem to realise but starts clinging to Kon as well. 

“Tim. Tim. You’re alright” Kon mutters, trying to convince his brain that it’s true. That Tim is alive and with him. Safe. 

But he can’t shake the image of Tim on the ground, gurgling up blood, limbs bent at off angles, with a puddle of blood spreading from his head. 

He doesn’t think he’ll ever forget it. Even if he dies again. 

“You asshole! Why didn’t you call me earlier?! Why- Why did you call me when you were already halfway down?!” Kon yells, drifting from shock to anger. It’s familiar. Anger at Tim for being reckless. The way Tim doesn’t seem to care for his own life. 

“You- You almost” Kon manages before his throat closes, forcing sobs and coughs from his airway. Because Tim had almost died. And Kon doesn’t think he could live with that. 

“Kon. Kon, I’m alright. I’m…alright. I promise” Tim says, voice slowly starting to filter in a tightness that only Kon can hear. Kon quickly realises the source when Tim wraps himself around him, shifting when Kon can hear the grind of bone on bone. Coming from Tim’s ribs. Right where Kon had grabbed him to stop from falling. 

Kon can’t feel bad for that. Won’t feel bad for saving Tim’s life. 

But he mutters something about Ma and a first aid kit before taking off quickly. Searching for Ma. 

Kon doesn’t quite know how to explain the situation to her. But Ma must see that Kon is distressed, following with hurried steps to Kon’s room. Where they find Tim in the middle of a panic attack. 

Kon takes the time to draw him out, grasping Tim’s hand and shoulder in an attempt to limit the damage Tim can do to himself. “You’re alright. I’m here. You’re safe” Kon mutters into Tim’s hair, platitudes and nothings mostly. Just giving something for Tim to latch onto while Ma starts wrapping Tim’s ribs. 

They can both see his eyes drifting closed as Tim starts to fall unconscious and to Ma’s protests, Kon starts calling out to Tim, begging him to stay awake.   
Kon doesn’t know how to explain that the pale figure of Tim laying so incredibly still reminds him too much of how wrong it could have gone.  
But Ma understands anyway. She smiles at Kon, saying that Tim will be alright, that his ribs are broken but none of them had pierced his lungs or anything dangerous. That Tim passing out is most likely shock and adrenaline crash. 

It doesn’t faze Kon, simply watching as Ma tucks a blanker around Tim and walks off.   
Kon’s eyes still stay on Tim.   
Watching the rise and fall of his chest.  
Hearing his heartbeat in his ears.

Because Tim is alive.   
Kon had made it.  
Tim might be hurt but he’s alive because of Kon. 

It doesn’t stop Kon from sitting down on the bed though. Just to make sure.


End file.
